any final suggestions for my remedy...?

[townsdp]

I have had maybe 8 sw tanks. half were reef. First 75g used dechlorinated tap, hob skimmer, and was a learning experience. My new one corrected previous mistakes. All RO/di, 15g sump with corralife 125, 15g fuge with macro, 3 maxi900, 440w Vho. At 5 months old, everything went bad when I acquired a single hermit with hair algae on his shell from my lfs. Long story shorter, horrible hair algae problem. Tried back to back water changes, changed salt 4 times and am back with oceanic, changed bulbs, pulled rock and scrubbed 3 or 4 times. fed small amount every other day. corals quit doin well and spreading and almost no spread of corraline algae since hair algae blew up. Phosphate removers didn't work either. cut down lights to 220w 4 hrs a day for months. Still horrible. So, I pulled fish and shrimp and put them in tank in kitchen. Took all rock out. Scrubbed it, stirred sand(water was like mud after this), scrubbed all glass, removed pvc frames for rock, cleaned ph's, skimmer, and did 50% water change. a week later did 20% water change. No food has gone in, and I checked my levels. Sal 1.025, Calc 525, Nitrate 0, Ph 8.2, phoshate < 0.1, alk 3.5. before the last water change but after the 50%, Alk was at 2.5, phos was at 0.2 and nitrates were at 10. I will let it ride solo for a couple weeks before putting in any fish. But in that time period between the two changes, a tiny amount of algae popped back up. I will give up and empty it if it pops back up. Any final suggestions to check or .....?

 

[townsdp]

And to add why I will give up, the tank is 2 yrs old. 1.5 yrs of a hair algae tank is enough. I have tried every remedy listed on this site.

 

[townsdp]

Ok. I got no response but u can see what I've done and what my params are. After like a week with no fish or food put in, the hair algae is growing back at a pissing-me-off rate. My phosphates are less than 0.1. What else does hair algae like? My bulbs are not old. No window nearby. My skimmer is running like a champ. What the hell? no brown or green algae, nor cyano anywhere in tank. Phosphate control by Bluelife only seemed to make it worse before. Before this tank becomes a fish only or freshwater tank, can anyone help me? I have seen many threads about hair algae and people did less than I have to clear it up. Only two bulbs are running at like 5 or 6 hrs a day, I don't remember which.

 

[grubsnaek]

possibly try a mexican turbo snail.....thats crazy your having this problem....

 

[townsdp]

I KNOW! Iv tried mex turbos, turbos, 2 sea hares, have a bunch of scarlets now, and even a lm blenny. Blenny never touched it and died very quickly. Snails did well for a while but didn't put a dent in it. one small hare disappeared and the big one did great until he burrowed under a rock and got stuck one night. I might try more snails, another blenny or possibly a foxface this weekend. But this seems like a bandaid for the problem, not a cure. I want it gone, not controlled. I can't find anything Im doing wrong.

 

[groupergenius]

I'm sure you have probably heard everything before. I had "the hairy monster" rearing it's ugly head in my tank and I cured it with a Foxface Rabbitfish, Emerald crabs, and a Phos-Ban reactor. Although I think the Rabbitfish did most of the work.
As a side note, I still have to turn everything off. Remove the standpipes in the overflow. And scrub out the overflow area of hair algae. But it doesn't grow in the display anymore.

 

[peglet]

I have read that bullet gobies love hair algae. Maybe you should try some. Hope this might help. I got this info from another fish site.

 

[calvertbill]

The natural laws rarely get broken (whether physical or biological). You sound WAY more experienced than I am, yet your problem goes unsolved. My mostly ignorant comment would be to get back to basics. What conditions do the problem algae mostly thrive on? Have your water professionally tested for every anomaly which makes hair algae happy and learn who its fiercest competitors for nutrients are. Make your tank a place it can't thrive. I'm just starting to address a similar problem in a 55 which is destined to be a refugium so I'll see how it goes (the only thing I know so far is that my phosphates are STILL out of whack and I don't know what's causing it).

 

[fishcurse]

i feel your pain. i have a 125 that has to be the worst case of hair algea to take over a tank. every water change my husband and i are scrubbing and pulling hair and it just comes right back. all my levels are normal and i only feed every other day. and my bigger fish get hand fed thier shrimp. also i only have 2 36w lights on the tank. i finally gave up and said well i guess this is how it is in the ocean and thought i just live with it, but now my fish are getting sick and i think the algea has something to do with it.